The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1887-08-17
AN AWFUL SIGHT.
what q Reporter Saw-Hats and Coats
Rocking with Blood.


O'Clock one of the Times staff was driven
out to the wreck. The driveway led
along to the left of the railroad, and to
the south of the road was an old-fashioned
Usage orange hedge. The road was very
muddy and full of chuckholes. A stream
of humanity was pouring in from the
wreck-some had checks in their hats, and
carried valises. They were evidently pas
sengers on the Inflated train. Country
boys and girls came along swinging hands
and talking in low tones about the terri
BILE disaster. A photographer dragged his
weary limbs along the track. He
was carrying camera and q
lot of negatives. The road bed
was almost level, just q little grade
running up to the wreck at raise of ten
ortffteen feet to the mile. About two and
one-half or three miles from the town on a
little raise was the debris of the wreck.
The sleeping car Tunis was at the end of
the train. 1t was lacked in the air, sup
ported by the trestle. The front end of the
car was directly over the place where the
bridge stood. TO the right lay a coach, all
broken into kindling wood, and directly
on the road was piled up what was left of
six or seven coaches, turned bottom side
up, and broken beyond recognition.
Across the track in front OF the pile of
debris was a coach, lying crosswise. at
least ten feet in air; beyond were the two
tenders and one engine; one tender was to
the left OF the track and the other to the
right. They were turned bottom side up
and rent asunder. On the side of the cab
wos the nl-starred number-13. Only a
big pane of glass marked Is.
Along the hedge there were valises,
shoes, boots, hats, all manner of articles of
wearing apparel, broken lanterns and seats
from the cars. 1t was an awful sight. Hats
of men and women broken and smeared
with blood, coats reeking with gore, and
ladies' underwear sineared with life blood.
1t was plain to be seen from the looks of
the baggage that the travellers were well-to-
DO people.
PASSENGERS STORY.
at was simply horrible" said Mr.. E A.
Varzandt, of Peoria, to a reporter for the
Times. NO words of mine can describe
the awfulness of the scene. 1 was on the
rear sleeper and so was in no danger, as no
one in the six sleepers was more than
shaken up. But even there we got bad
shock. felt three distinct bumps and
then rushed out of the car and ran for
ward to the wreck. There the scene was
horrible, horrible. The only light was the
flames the burning bridge and above it the
day coaches were piled up on top of one
another in a heterogeneous mass. The en-.
gIne was buried in the ditch and the head
less body of the engineer, Eugene McClin-
took, was underneath it. From all sides
came groans and cries for aid, 50 we went
to work, and we had to work hard too.
If the wreck ever caught fire three hun
dred people would have been burned to
death and the only thing we could do was
to smother the fire with dirt. 1t was hard
and slow work. and took us four hours to
do it, but we did it and when the fire was
out other help came and we got the dead
and wounded out and during the morning
took what care OF them we could.
There was an incident in the affair
which was not Only remarkable in its way,
but shows how terribly those six coaches
were jsmmed and mashed together. When
the accident occurred, Andy Mooney, of
Peoria, and Conductor stlllweu, who was
in charge Of the train, were three cars from
each other. Mooney was IN the second car
| and StilIwelI In the fifth. The next in
slant they found themselves literally in
each others arms, the car in which the con-
ductor was riding having been carried
over the two In front and dropped on top
OF the one which Moony was in. The
strange Part of it was neither man was
hurt.
The most horrible death of all was that
of Eugene MoClintock. engineer of the
second engine of the double-header, Tbs
first engine, which Engineer Sutherland
was driving passed over the burning
bridge in safety, but 1t was under its
weight that the half consumed bridge gave
way, and the tender dropped back into the
dry slough. Sutherland's engine kept the
rails and ran on in safety, such was the
awfUf speed of the unfortunate train. Nc
Clintock's engine plunged down into the
back hole, and as the tender mounted on
top of the cab it took McClintook in the
back of the neck and cut his head clean of
bis shoulders. The trunk was found under
the engine, but the head could not be dis
covered, and the presumption is that 1t
was ground to atoms in the horrible mill
stones OF the engine and the tender.
The news of the disaster was brought to
Chatsworth by one of the passengers about
midnight and the inhabitants around Sc
cured buggies, lumber-wagons and every
kind of vehicles to reach the fatal spot.
As fast as the corpses were taken from the
wreck they were laid out on the side of
the track. Before daylight the work of re-
covering the dead and moving them to
Chatsworth was begun. AS soon as the
corpses were recovered they were placed in
large empty building lately occupied
as a store, also in the public
school house, and in the depot
waiting room. The residents of the town